Culture minister arrives in United States

New York, Aug. 22 (CNA) Culture Minister Lung Ying-tai arrived in New York Tuesday to begin a two-week visit to promote closer cultural collaboration between Taiwan and North America.

The following day, she visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and later gave a speech titled “Border Crossing -- Writing, Politics and the Taiwan Strait” at the New York headquarters of the Asia Society, which promotes exchanges between Asia and the U.S.

Prior to her departure, Lung said that one of the missions of her trip is to enhance the visibility of Taiwanese culture in major cities in the U.S. and Canada, and to increase Taiwan’s cultural participation internationally.

She is expected to visit the Guggenheim Museum and U.S. publisher Simon and Schuster over the next two days, and to meet Friday with Neal Shapiro, president of the WNET public TV station.

On Aug. 25, Lung will travel to Washington, D.C., where she will visit the WETA TV station, the Kennedy Center, along with various think thanks and research institutes. She will also be interviewed by Voice of America.

She will give a speech titled “Soft Power in a Hard Time -- A Cultural Perspective on Cross-Strait Relations” at George Washington University Aug. 27 and another at the National Press Club on Taiwan’s soft power and Taiwan-China relations.

She will then travel to Vancouver, where she will give two talks, one of which will take place at the University of British Columbia, while the other will be addressed to Canadian art groups and university scholars. She is scheduled to wrap up her trip Sept. 4.

It is Lung’s first visit to the United States since assuming office as culture minister in February.

Before assuming the post, Lung was a renowned essayist and cultural critic, with readers in Taiwan, China, the United States and other countries.

Many are interested in how Lung will respond during her trip to questions about Taiwan-China-U.S. relations in the current period of warming ties across the Taiwan Strait, as well as on the future of Taiwan’s cultural development.